Tony Stewart NASCAR Truck Return Ends in Crash at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Tony Stewart’s highly anticipated return to NASCAR competition ended prematurely Friday night at Daytona International Speedway after a crash in Stage 2 of the Fresh From Florida 250, the opening race of the Craftsman Truck Series season. Stewart, a three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, hadn’t competed in NASCAR since 2018 and hadn’t raced in the Truck Series since 2005.

The incident occurred on Lap 36 when Jake Garcia lost control of his No. 98 Ford F-150 and slid up the track, making contact with Stewart’s No. 25 Kaulig Ram and sending both trucks into the outside wall. While Stewart was evaluated and released from the infield care center, his team decided to withdraw from the race due to the damage sustained, as he wasn’t competing for points in the one-off appearance.

“Man, I can’t even drive it,” Stewart radioed to his crew following the crash. The team responded, “If you can’t drive it, we’ll take it to the garage.”

Stewart, who was running towards the back of the lead pack at the time of the incident, expressed some frustration but also a degree of acceptance. “It was starting to get fun, where we could at least get up there and mix it up a little bit, and get in the middle of that stuff,” he said on the TV broadcast. “Not sure what happened underneath us. Just cuts across the nose. But just part of it.”

The 54-year-old Stewart acknowledged the challenges of returning to racing after a decade away, particularly in a different series and with a new truck package. Speaking to reporters after being cleared at the infield care center, he explained, “The hard thing is, it’s the first race for Kaulig with a truck. So I haven’t ran this package. I don’t know really what it’s supposed to feel like, but I never felt like early in the race that the right rear was really underneath it. I felt like a couple times it never really stepped out, but it just got really free to where you could feel the steering wheel get light and you know, that’s when the car’s getting free.”

He added that the team had begun to make progress with adjustments before the crash. “The first time we had a shot to come make a pit stop and make an adjustment, it didn’t really seem like it moved the needle at all. So next time we came down, Alex [Yontz, crew chief] went a different route and it definitely responded to it. I definitely liked it. We probably needed that much of an adjustment again, if not a little more, but at least at the time, I could kind of tug on the wheel a little more and feel like I had more control of my truck and felt like I could get up in the mix without feeling too worried about it.”

Stewart also reflected on the unique experience of being back in the thick of competition. “I don’t get a chance to mix it up wheel-to-wheel with anybody anymore on the drag racing side, you don’t want to be around anybody running 300mph,” he said. “But, you know, it was fun to come back here. It was fun to watch the style these kids run. The guys that — that their trucks felt good right out of the gate, they were aggressive and it’s like, ‘man, I wish I had the confidence to do that,’ but it was getting more fun when the balance was getting closer to where we needed it to be.”

When asked about the possibility of returning to the Truck Series in the future, Stewart offered a cautious response. “I don’t know,” he said. “I didn’t think I was going to be here 10 years after I retired, so I think we have to learn to never say never. But yeah, it’s a great opportunity. I’m so appreciative.”

Stewart’s early exit followed a similar fate for YouTube sensation Cleetus McFarland, who crashed out just six laps into the race while making his NASCAR Truck Series debut. Stewart ultimately finished 36th, while McFarland finished 37th.

Ty Dillon will take the wheel of the No. 25 Kaulig Ram for next week’s race at Atlanta, as the team plans to have a rotating roster of drivers throughout the season. Stewart’s brief return to Daytona, while cut short, provided a glimpse of the excitement he still brings to the sport and sparked conversation about a potential future behind the wheel.